House of the Week: $4.5 million for a Casa Loma castle (no, not that one)

House of the Week: $4.5 million for a Casa Loma castle (no, not that one)

ADDRESS: 66 Russell Hill Road

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Casa Loma

AGENT: Jonathan Ferrier and Elli Davis, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage

PRICE: $4,500,000

THE PLACE: Nestled at the bottom of Russell Hill Road and flanked by Sir Winston Churchill Park and Roycroft Park, this house provides the best in stately castle (there is a turret covered in vines, after all) that Toronto has to offer this side of Casa Loma.

BRAGGING RIGHTS: The home is a name-dropper’s dream: it was built in 1926 for Frank W. Stone and his wife, American opera singer Rosie Scott, by Douglas E. Kertland, the architect famous for designing the Automotive Building (now the Allstream Centre) at Exhibition Place (the garden was even featured in Canadian Homes and Gardens magazine in 1934). The Stones later sold the property to Henry John Burden, a World War I flying ace and architect (who designed a home for the Eaton family and was Billy Bishop’s brother-in-law). Following Burden’s death in 1960, politician, Citytv correspondent and officer of the Order of Canada Morton Shulman took up residence here.

BIG SELLING POINT: The leaded-glass windows and wide-planked oak floors maintain the classic character of the house, but the five-piece master ensuite bathroom with Jacuzzi tub means this won’t be medieval living.

POSSIBLE DEAL BREAKER: Unfortunately, the turret is more for style, less for defending the fort.

BY THE NUMBERS:
• $4,500,000
• $34,103.21 (2010 taxes)
• 7 bathrooms
• 6 bedrooms
• 5-piece master ensuite bathroom
• 1 backyard in-ground pool
• 1 Jacuzzi tub